Background When a land trust accepts a conservation agreement, it also accepts the responsibility to enforce that agreement in the event it is violated, and to defend it from challenges. Land trusts facing their first enforcement action often wish they had a formal policy or written procedure to follow governing…

Background Landowner contact has always been a part of the Canadian Land Trust Standards and Practices, but land trusts are increasingly realizing that developing strong relationships with landowners is the best way to help provide for good stewardship of the land and avoid potential conservation agreement conflicts. This practice is…

Background There are several reasons why a land trust should monitor its conservation agreements annually. In exceptional circumstances, due to the remoteness of the property, monitoring may not be carried out on an annual basis, but a schedule for monitoring should still be developed to insure the conservation values of…

Background Baseline documentation reports are critical for establishing the condition of the property at the time the conservation agreement is transferred, and are the basis of future monitoring and enforcement. In addition, for conservation agreements for which a federal tax deduction is granted under the Ecological Gifts Program, the compilations…

A. Funding Conservation Agreement Stewardship Background This practice emphasizes the need to review immediate and long-term costs of conservation agreement holding, and to secure operating and/or dedicated funds to carry out the land trust’s obligations. A land trust should perform a calculation for every transaction to determine the funding needed…

A. Landowner Notification

Background This practice specifies that when a land trust sells land it should first evaluate every property for its important conservation values, and design protections (such as conservation agreements) accordingly. Once the protection strategy has been determined, the land trust should then obtain a qualified independent appraisal (or, if the…

Background A land trust must be able to justify the price paid for land and conservation agreements for several reasons: to show fiscal responsibility; to avoid undue benefit; to substantiate prices paid in a changing market; to avoid inflating market value; to avoid losing money on resale; and to be…